Since going free-to-play last month, EverQuest has seen its concurrent user count increase by 40 percent, while player registrations have increased by 3.5 times.

Purchases of in-game items have also seen a notable increase, up 125 percent compared to figures from before the game was free-to-play.

SOE currently has at least two MMORPGs in development, including a project codenamed "EverQuest Next" and Planetside 2, the latter of which Smedley has already said will launch with a free-to-play approach inspired by Riot Games' popular RTS League of Legends.